What do we do?

We are a voluntary emergency service who attend callouts in response to requests from the Police. The team is on call 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Our main function is the search and rescue of injured walkers or climbers, but our role extends beyond that to other areas where our skills are of use, such as searches for vulnerable people in rural areas. Our principle area of operations extends from the southern Peak District to as far south as Milton Keynes, but we can also be called to assist teams in other areas when needed. In the past, the team has attended incidents in areas as far afield as Wales and Scotland.

A typical callout situation would be a climber falling from a crag face or a walker or biker on the hills having an accident.An ambulance would not be able to directly attend such an incident because the terrain would be inaccessible and in some circumstances, our specialised skills are required to extract a casualty from a difficult situation. In such cases, the Police would request a mountain rescue team and the team is then mobilised to locate the casualty, administer first aid and get them to safety. Once the casualty is stabilised enough for transport, the team will carry out an evacuation, either by stretcher, using specialised equipment designed for mountain rescue environments or if necessary, by helicopter, using the facilities of the RAF, the Air Ambulance or the Police.

The first aid that the team administers can go a long way beyond standard first aid procedures due to the fact that in mountain rescue, the team can be attending to a casualty in adverse conditions for long periods of time, or have to deal with serious head or spinal injuries, transporting casualties large distances over very rough terrain.For this reason, the team is equipped with specialised medical equipment, such as vacuum splints and mats, traction splints, medical gases and rescue stretchers and all members are trained in their use.

Some callouts could also require our rope and crag skills, setting up complex belays and rope systems in order to extract a casualty from a crag face or to raise or lower stretchers down steep or vertical drops.

Not all callouts are so dramatic of course. Often, the team is called on to locate missing walkers. In these scenarios, the team uses a variety of search techniques to cover large areas of land which can encompass hills, rivers, remote moorland or any other kind of rough terrain. In some cases, the team would call on the assistance of search and rescue dogs from the SARDA team, an invaluable resource in these situations. Once the missing person is located, they will be escorted back to safety.

It is not just walkers and climbers who the team attends to. We will often be called out to search for vulnerable persons who have wandered off from home or to assist stranded travellers in adverse weather conditions.

The team also has a water section that can be called upon for incidents in or around rivers, canals or lakes.

Derby Mountain Rescue Team is a charitable company (1089237) limited by guarantee.
Registered in England & Wales No 4229996.